Treatment of Suwanee River humic (SRHA) and fulvic (SRFA) acids, a commercial lignin (LAC), and a series of solid phase extracts (C18) from the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB extracts) with sodium borohydride (NaBH4), a selective reductant of carbonyl-containing compounds including quinones and aromatic ketones, produces a preferential loss of visible absorption (g50% for SRFA) and substantially enhanced, blue-shifted ﬂuorescence emission (2- to 3-fold increase). Comparison of the results with those obtained from a series of model quinones and hydroquinones demonstrates that these spectral changes cannot be assigned directly to the absorption and emission of visible light by quinones/hydroquinones. Instead, these results are consistent with a charge transfer model in which the visible absorption is due primarily to charge transfer transitions arising among hydroxy- (methoxy-)aromatic donors and carbonylcontaining acceptors. Unlike most of the model hydroquinones, the changes in optical properties of the natural samples following NaBH4 reduction were largely irreversible in the presence of air and following addition of a Cu2+ catalyst, providing tentative evidence that aromatic ketones (or other similar carbonylcontaining structures) may play a more important role than quinones in the optical properties of these materials.